jav-ed tmux Terminal Interaction
Use native tmux commands when you need an interactive terminal (TUI applications) or when a command requires the user to enter a sudo password. For everything else, use the Bash tool directly.
References
- Output capture — which capture method to use and when (file+sentinel, capture-pane, what to avoid)
- sudo workflow — how to run privileged commands when a password is required
- Session & pane management — creating, splitting, and killing sessions and panes
Standard Workflow
1. Get pane ID once → tmux list-panes -a -F "#{session_name}:#{pane_id}"
2. Clear outputs → rm -f /tmp/tmux_out.txt /tmp/tmux_done.txt
3. Execute → tmux send-keys -t '%X' 'cmd > /tmp/tmux_out.txt 2>&1; echo ok > /tmp/tmux_done.txt' Enter
4. Poll → for i in $(seq 1 20); do [ -f /tmp/tmux_done.txt ] && break; sleep 0.5; done
5. Read result → cat /tmp/tmux_out.txt
Reuse the same pane ID throughout the session — IDs are stable for the lifetime of the pane.
Quick Reference
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| List sessions | tmux list-sessions |
| List panes | tmux list-panes -a -F "#{session_name}:#{pane_id}" |
| Send command | tmux send-keys -t '%X' 'cmd' Enter |
| Capture (short output) | tmux capture-pane -p -t '%X' -S -10 |
| Capture (reliable) | file + sentinel — see output_Capture.md |
| Attach (for sudo) | tmux attach -t name |
| Create session | tmux new-session -d -s name |
| Kill session | tmux kill-session -t name |